Of Werewolves and Vampires
by Starbright1
Summary: In the summer after GoF, Sirius Black is sent to collect the old crowd, but in the case of Remus Lupin, someone else got there first. Complete and completely re-written. Please read and review!
1. Sanctuary

**Of Werewolves and Vampires Chapter 1 ** Disclaimer: I am J.K. Rowling and I decided to write short stories for free on a fanfiction webpage. Not buying it? Okay, I don't own nothin' but the plot. 

Remus had no idea how long or far he had run. Every breath he drew was painful. All he could hear was the pounding of blood in his ears. He had no plan, no destination. Remus only knew he must keep running. His life depended on it. Only fear drove him now.

He risked a quick glance over his shoulder. Nothing. The dark Muggle street was empty as far as he could see. But his pursuers were there, just out of sight. Remus could smell them, sense them.

__

How could he have been so stupid?

Remus had no weapons with him, not even his wand. He had left that in the Muggle motel room he was staying in. There was simply no way to make a foot long stick look unobtrusive under light Muggle summer clothing.

__

He was a Defense against the Dark Arts teacher for God's sake, he should have known better than to have gone out without it – alone and unarmed into the night.

But still, this many vampires pursuing a single target, especially one which proved so elusive, some of them ought to have gone off to look for easier prey. Yet they continued their hunt. It was uncanny.

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Uncanny. That's exactly what this is, thought Remus, glancing over his shoulder again. He saw them this time. Half a dozen vampires, pursuing him. 

__

And gaining.

He looked straight ahead again, running flat out. The stitch in his side like a knife between his ribs.

Then he saw it.

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Sanctuary.

Not a quarter mile ahead was a church. A Catholic Church: crosses, holy water, hollowed ground. He was going to make it. He put on an extra burst of speed with strength gathered from nowhere.

__

He was going to make it.

The minutes it took to reach the church seemed like an eternity. But, finally, he was there, flying up the steps, pounding on the door. Pleading for entrance with the last of his breath. It wasn't late. Not 8:00 even, someone had to be there.

"Sanctuary," he screamed over and over, "For God's sake, someone, please, open the door." 

His prayers were answered.

A priest yanked the doors open. Remus brushed past without looking at him. He headed straight for the fountain.

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Holy water.

He fell to his knees before it, dipping cupped hands in.

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Nothing.

The fountain was dry. The holy water, gone. 

A flicker of light entered his vision. Remus stood up and raised his eyes slowly; afraid of what he might see.

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A shard of colored glass.

The stained glass windows had been smashed, as had the religious figures. The large cross that stood as a centerpiece, desecrated.

__

Was nothing sacred?

He was set up. He stood, unmoving, in shock and fear.

__

There was no way he was getting out of this one. 

Remus felt searing pain in the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and collapsed into the preternaturally strong arms which held him.

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No, drifted a voice into the back of his mind. _Not like this. You can't die like this. You have to fight._

Remus' eyes snapped open.

"Not like this," he repeated.

His struggles were so sudden and so violent the priest-vampire was taken by surprise. His foot made contact with its knee with a powerful crack. The demon cried out in pain, releasing Remus' neck. The werewolf, in turn, smashed his head back into the vampire's face. The demon's grip loosened and Remus slipped out of reach, backing into the confession box.

__

A weapon. You need a weapon.

The vampire was recovering, and already making for him. Remus, at a loss, let his instincts take over. Snapping a piece of wood from the confession box, he plunged the makeshift stake into the lunging vampire's heart.

He pulled it out. And as the former priest dissolved into dust before him, the doors swung open with a crash.

The cavalry had arrived. 


	2. Crusade

Chapter 2 ****

Sirius Black was becoming very irritable.

It had been more than six weeks since Dumbledore had sent him to collect the old crowd. He had tracked nearly all of them down, those that were still alive, and alerted them to the reassembling of the Order of the Phoenix. Most had taken only a few days to find. They were connected to the Floo network, listed on membership registers, regulars at the Leaky Cauldron. They still had friends and family in the places they had lived twenty years ago from whom one could acquire a forwarding address.

They had roots.

He had found them, all but one, in the first two weeks of his mission. He had spent the remaining four looking for Remus Lupin.

What little patience Sirius had to begin with was beginning to wear thin.

"Lie low at Lupin's place," Dumbledore had told him.

_And where exactly would that be, _he wondered bitterly.

Remus was always on the move, and an expert at remaining anonymous. He wasn't picky about where he slept, nor could he afford to be. It was run down apartments and cheap motels when he was doing well, abandoned buildings and camping in the woods when he wasn't. 

Never staying in one town, or even in one country, for more than a few months at a time and rarely giving out his name. Just another drifter through another place already chock full of them. Remus was nearly impossible to find. 

Nearly.

There was one blatant tear in his veil of anonymity.

Remus just wasn't the kind of person that could leave well enough alone. Whenever he saw an injustice being done, an innocent being harmed, he had to step in and put a stop to it. Mostly he defended people against the Dark Arts, as was his specialty. This meant he killed a lot of demons, which meant many of said demons' coteries were out to kill him.

When Remus came to town there was usually a major drop in demon population, followed by a rise in demonic activity. Remus, then realizing he had overstayed his welcome, would skip out in the middle of the night. Barring any unforeseen challenges, that is. 

Sirius had recognized the need to gather information from alternate sources early on in the search. This led to a rather interesting discovery. On the vampire circuit there were rumors of a man that killed the undead, said to have the strength of a demon and the skill of the vampire hunters of old. This mysterious stranger was currently supposed to be in a tiny Hungarian village, where eight days ago, on the full moon, there was an unconfirmed werewolf sighting.

Since uncovering this lead Sirius had been making his way to the place in question, but rather slowly as he couldn't risk flying his motorbike and was currently earthbound. 

Even so, if all went well he could be there by sunset this very night.


	3. Leap of Faith

Chapter 2 ****

Chapter 3

Although classified as beings, vampires are some of the most vicious dark creatures ever to walk the Earth. They have no souls and kill without remorse.

_Which is a must when you live off human blood, _thoughtRemus.

Looking around, it was apparent that he was fairly well surrounded. Two of the vampires had stayed near the front door while the others had split up and were encircling him. The windows were either too small or too high up to be of any use to him.

_Think. Church: bell tower, priest's office, Sunday school rooms. There must be a way to get to those from here. _

His eyes searched through the darkness for a hallway or a staircase. Then he saw it. On his far right, half obscured by shadow, was a door. One of the vampires stood near it. 

__

He must know it's there. He can guard it for the few seconds it will take for the others to come to his aid, and then I lose.

_I mustn't alert them to what I am doing._

Remus turned to face the two vampires closing in on his left. He held his right hand, which contained the stake, in front of him and began to slowly back away, avoiding the pews. The two continued to move towards him cautiously. Remus' pace quickened. When he was halfway there he turned around and ran. He was almost at the door when the guard vampire launched himself at Remus from behind, wrapping his arms around his victim. The other two vampires stopped their pursuit, still a fair distance away. 

_Perfect_, thought Remus.

He twisted in the vampire's grasp, wrapping his right arm around himself he plunged the stake into the space between his arm and chest. And found flesh. The vampire screamed as the wood drove through his heart, collapsing into dust. 

Remus threw himself against the door, rattling the knob.

_Locked._

Remus backed up and launched himself at the door, ramming it with his shoulder.

It gave.

He fell into the entryway, slamming the door shut behind him. He was in a short hallway. A few doors opened off either side, but they were all locked, and looked much sturdier than the one he came through. He headed directly for the stairwell at the opposite end.

By this time he could hear the first of the vampires entering the hall. Remus dashed up the stone steps, not bothering to look back.

The werewolf finally emerged in the bell tower, panting. He walked around the bell to stand on the edge of the edifice and gaze at the town below.

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Why on Earth did you have to come up here? Now you really are trapped. There's no way you can fight them all without a wand. 

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Remus answered himself aloud.

The pounding of feet on stone stopped and Remus glanced around at the demons beginning to enter the tower.

__

You can't fight them all.

So he did the only other thing he could think of.

He jumped. 


	4. Savior

Chapter 4 ****

It was true dark when Sirius roared into town, short hair whipping in the wind. He slowed down, wary awakening the dead town up for, although he looked normal enough in the jeans and sweatshirt he had 'borrowed' from a church donations box, it being labeled as a hooligan straight off would probably impede his search efforts.

Sirius meandered his bike through the streets, looking for a place to crash for the night. There was even the possibility of staying in a Muggle motel since he had a little Muggle money Arabella had given him. Even a bit dirty and unshaven, he was hardly a dead ringer for his highly unflattering wanted poster from two years ago.

As he looked up at the horizon, the moonlight glancing off the church bell caught his eye.

And then he saw it: a silhouette in the bell tower.

_But what would anyone be doing in there this time of night?_

He sped up toward the church, still staring at the shape. Moving in closer, the activities of the tower-bound individual become more obvious. Several more people came into view, the original figure had backed away, right to the edge, and was leaning over. Just as if . . .

_O my God!_

Sirius was racing forward as fast as the bike would go, but the person was falling too fast, there was no way he could make it.

On the ground.

The engine gave an almighty roar as the motorcycle pelted into the air. 

_Just in time._

Sirius made a wild grab at the jumper, but the man had already caught him around the shoulders and swung himself onto to the bike behind Sirius, fastening his arms securely about his rescuer's waist.

Sirius felt the rescuee lean forward against him, resting his chin on the convict's shoulder. 

"My hero," said a very familiar voice in his ear as they zoomed off into the night. 


End file.
